365/303: 19 December 2010: The Spirit of a Misplaced Childhood

Went to see Fish in Maryport tonight – special for two reasons – Fish is a class act and Ashley was in the support act (13 stars). Good on both fronts.
13 Stars were good – A seemed to enjoy himself.
First saw Fish in Marillion in 1981 at Reading but had not heard any of his solo material before. For once that didn’t seem to matter because the songs were so good. He had real stage presence and a great sense of drama in his delivery. Only sour note was that he didn’t play an encore because a couple of drunken scumbags wouldn’t shut up during the quiet numbers (of which there were lots because it was a semi-acoustic set) What is it with these people – why the hell pay all that cash for a gig simply to talk all the way through and spoil it for everyone else? Morons. I’m sure a good kicking would help them understand. Move on – it was a great gig.

365 Challenge – Days 24-27 : 15-18 March 2010

Another four days on the road. First night (Monday 15) was yet another late arrival at the Park Royal, but the bathroom came up trumps with this one. Quite like shooting in hotel bathrooms (sounds like a Psycho remake) because all the white tiles make for more uniform lighting. This one shows the distortion you get with an ultra wide angle – if you’re in to photo geekery.

On the second night we moved to the rather pleasant Lowry Hotel in the middle on Manchester for a big two–day meeting. Just love city architecture, and the Lowry has some really interesting stuff quite nearby – like this bridge over the River Irwell. Wished I brought my proper tripod with me as photographing in light this low is always a challenge with just a monopod.


The first full day of the meeting finished early enough for me to get out in the evening light  and have a go at catching the spirit of the odd-shaped building in the top left of the previous photo. I shall have to find out why it was built like this:

And finally home again (18th March). As I wore a collar and tie for most of the conference I thought I’d celebrate this unusual feat with a picture of one of my ties.

So there we are. Back on blogging schedule – with the first month of the challenge in my sights.